Archive for February 2009

Suddenly, it seems like my kids are no longer little kids. The boys are 4 now, and granted they have always been tall, but now they seem to have the bodies of little boys — not toddlers, anymore. It’s funny, from up close, holding them and hugging them, they don’t seem so big, but then they step away a few feet and they look bigger than they felt.

Aliza comes up to my mid-stomach. I barely have to bend over anymore to look her in the eye. I just put away all these size 7/8 t-shirts for this summer, and they all look so small! I am wondering whether I should go ahead and sell them in the Mothers of Multiples sale right now, before summer, because obviously they won’t fit her for long. Right now, they’d be “belly” shirts on her. I am going to have to hit the size 9 rack at the sale to find shirts that will fit her! And she’s barely 6 years old. I’m worried for her, really. I know what it’s like to feel bigger than everyone else. She doesn’t seem self conscious about it yet, but I’ll be watching.

The battery in my camera is dead, and I can’t find the cord to plug it into the wall so it can recharge, haven’t been able to find it for a month now. I have to unearth that thing, because it’s starting to be a problem that I can’t take pictures or movies! I have to record these tiny giants in my house.

I was just driving my dad’s car which has XM satellite radio, and wondering, what are they going to call music from this decade? There’s stations for music from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. What will the music from 2000-2009 be called? For that matter what will music from 2010-2019 be called? I have no idea.

I have a sick little girl. She appears to just have a cold, but she just took a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. That’s not the actions of a healthy child.

I went see The Reader last night, with Kate Winslet, it was great. A very intellectual, thoughtful movie. We talked about seeing He’s Just Not That Into You but I kind of figured, if I’m going to the trouble of going out to see a movie, I should see something really, really good.

The Reader was playing in the VIP luxury seating 21+ only theater at the mall, which was fun, it was like first class airplane seating. Regular movie seats will never work for me again. And here’s proof I’m a grown up, if anyone needed any proof: I could have had beer or wine, it was offered to me, and I just had a bottle of water. Because I was afraid alcohol would just make me tired.

I’m currently reading my first Jodi Piccoult book, and it’s different than I thought it would be. I’m 2/3 through it, and it’s kind of melodramatic, sappy, very lifetime-for-women-ish. I had not expected that. It’s a good story but I feel sort of like my emotions are being played upon to make me like the book more. It’s no Anita Shreve, that’s for sure. Her books are genius. Fortune’s Rocks might be my favorite because it really, really surprised me. At first I didn’t like it, and then it got better, and then I started really not liking the heroine, although I understood why she did what she did, and then it really surprised me with a great ending. I like it when a book surprises me and totally turns itself around.

Somebody said, in response to a comment I made on a forum about really liking Anita Shreve, that’s she’s prolific. I could tell that was a slam but had to look up the word to see for sure what she was saying. It means that everything she writes is repetative, one books sounds just like another. Aren’t all authors like that to a certain extent, though? It all depends on whether you like their writing style.

Lately, getting time in front of my own computer is a bit more challenging. If it’s not Mark, then it’s Aliza! She knows how to get to carebears.com, and barbie.com, and noggin.com. She created some virtual snowglobes, I think on carebears.com, and emailed them to me and my parents. I told her my email and my parents email once, and I’m not sure how many she sent to them, but I got 4 snowglobes in my inbox. I’m getting email from my 6 year old.

Today is the last day of school for the week, our district has decided to celebrate Presidents’ Day on Friday this week. Or maybe they are ignoring it alltogether, and this is just a “professional day” for the teachers and admin. Who knows. All I know for sure is, no school tomorrow. So I think we might all go to the zoo.

My parents are in Hawaii right now, and they sent some pictures last night, beautiful pictures. I sure hope I can travel and have adventures like they are, when I’m their age. It’s hard to imagine where our kids will be at by then, especially the boys. I know families with children with Fragile X who live at home indefinitely, through their adulthood. There are miracle medications out there being tested right now which should increase their mental capacity enough that they might be able to take care of themselves, but I’m not sure how close they’ll be to being able to totally be independent, living on their own. While they have made great progress so far, it’s impossible to know at age 4 where they’ll be in 15 or 20 years.

I just read “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch, if you haven’t read it, you should, and if you won’t read it, you should go to youtube.com and find it on there and watch it. He’s an amazing speaker with a lot of great things to say.

I lost the battery charger for my camera, and the battery is so low right now it won’t even turn on, so my digital pictures are all trapped in there. I’m going to have to either turn the house upside down and find it (I know it’s in here somewhere), or else look for one online and buy one.

Aliza was tested to see if she could get into the magnet school for the Gifted and Talented. I know, I know, everyone thinks their kid is a genius, but we figured, why not? Anyway, she didn’t make it in. We got the results yesterday, and while she tested above average, she didn’t test quite well enough to get into that school. Oh well.

Our daughter was barely 6 years old the first time she asked for her own cell phone.

She got awesome walkie talkies for her birthday from her Grandpa Jim, that’s going to have to satisfy her for now.

The boys had a lovely birthday party yesterday, in that they didn’t care much for it but they weren’t totally miserable either. They both tolerated it pretty well. They didn’t care about opening their presents but will love their toys once they get used to them. They’ll be so cute in their new clothes, too. Today we are going to look into a couple of new carseats for them, they have pretty much outgrown the old ones. They are 4 now, and have been sitting in these carseats since they were 1, I think. It’s time for something closer to a booster, although not a traditional car booster, like Aliza sits on. They definitely need more support and more strapping-in than she needs.

I haven’t been so good at updating lately, that’s part of the reason I started doing it this way on wordpress.com, hoping that if it were a tiny bit easier maybe I’d do it more. I bet no one even reads this anymore. If I were reading it, and I checked for a couple of months and there were no updates, I think I’d quit looking.

Me: I’m working diligently every month on the Mothers of Multiples newsletter. I love doing it, I will know when I don’t love it anymore that it’s time to move on. It’s time consuming but really gives me a great creative outlet. I love writing, I love designing, I love organizing the stuff on the pages, it’s all great fun for me. Other than that, keeping up with the housework and laundry, and staying on top of the boys’ therapy schedules and Aliza’s events and things keeps me going day and night.

Mark: was laid off in November, for those who might not know. He has had lots of leads, lots of interviews, so undoubtably soon something will actually turn into a job offer. He will have to start his own blog, I think I’ll suggest that to him.

Aliza: is a smart, fun kindergartener. She is reading so well, and participating in SEEKERS, I don’t know what that stands for, but it’s for the advanced kids in the class and they just do some additional learning activities. Last week they learned about hibernation. She also still goes to gymnastics and loves that. I hope to get her back into dancing this summer. I need to find more summer activities for her too, so she doesn’t get bored hanging around here all the time.

AJ: Is doing so well in therapy and school. He communicates better and better, although still not talking. Well, he’ll say “ma”. That’s about it. Every once in a while it’ll sound like he said a word, in the middle of all the babbling he does. But it doesn’t happen consistently enough for me to give him credit for “talking”.

Zack: is also doing great with therapy and school. Zack can show you his head, his tummy, his nose, and we’re working on his toes. He can blow kisses and he’s so thrilled with himself when he knows he’s done something right.

Both boys have preschool Monday through Friday mornings, and therapy all afternoon for 5-6 hours a day. Saturdays mornings therapy is 9-12. Our boys don’t have a lot of time off, but it turns out they like it that way. They really do well when they have a rigid schedule maintained, and they know what is going to happen, and when.

Lily: our new cat is thriving in her new home as well. She has a shinier coat and is a little chubbier than when we brought her home, leading me to believe she’s living a cat’s dream life. She is so good with the kids, and only scratches someone once in awhile. AJ loves her, he laughs and laughs when she runs through the house.

That’s all for now. Have to go get the kitchen cleaned up so I can trash it again for lunch.

Here’s what happened today…..I took the boys and Aliza to the mall so they could release some energy at the playland there. Unfortunately it was pretty crowded there, and AJ handles it pretty well, but Zack had a tough time. I stopped him from biting a little girl in the arm, and I gave him a pacifier, hoping that would keep his mouth otherwise busy and keep him calmer so he wouldn’t do it again. I don’t like giving out the pacifiers in public, I’m waiting for someone to say something (“that kid is too big for a pacifier…”) but if it kept him calm, it was worth any scrutiny I might receive.

Well it didn’t work. He went down a slide, there was a little kid standing right there, and he whipped out the pacifier and chomped down on the poor kid’s thigh. This boy was probably not even 2 years old. Well of course he cried and cried. I told his mother what happened and how sorry I was. I was just horrified. I have come to the conclusion I would rather be the parent of the kid who gets bit, rather than the one who does the biting. I’d rather be indignant, angry, and maybe even vengeful, than filled with this guilt, and this fear of taking my kid out in public again. Poor Zack, I don’t think, was quite sure what he had done wrong, but he knew something had gone wrong and he cried and cried too.

Aliza has been very much into the video games lately. I have a friend whose children are obsessed with their computer and video games and she has to limit how much time they spend on them, or they’d just sit in front of a screen all the live long day. I had to say “no more video games” today for really the first time.